1892.] S. E. Peal — Communal Barracks of Primitive Races. 263 



viewed as harmless juvenile amusements. A view which extends from, 

 the Himalaya to New Zealand, and from the Marquesas to the Gaboon 

 and beyond. 



But to return to our (exogamic) Australians, and the traces of the 

 barrack system among these nomadic races. Mr. Brough Smyth at 

 page 36 of his great work says : — " The unmarried young men have 

 a place set apart for them in the camps, and they are not permitted to 

 associate with the females, page 62. At the " mur rum " initiation 

 of a girl by old women, after being painted, young men (20 or so) 

 approach and take an oath not to assault her, but she may entertain 

 any of them of her own free will as a lover, till married. 



As marriage is only possible by capture or exchange, a man with 

 no female relations (to barter) is an object of suspicion, and Las to 

 " share the discomforts of the bachelors' quarters." (page 86). A man 

 calls a woman of the same caste (or clan) " Wartoa," i. e., sister, and 

 cannot marry her, yet connections of a less virtuous character which 

 take place between them, do not appear to be considered incestuous." 

 " Intercourse between the males and females belonging to the same 

 class, appear to be regarded without disfavor." " In arranging the 

 " miams " (in a camp) care is taken to separate the unmarried young 

 men from the married females and their families. It is not permitted 

 to the young men to mix with females, but the young people of both 

 sexes evade all precautions generally," (p. 124). 



" When one tribe visits another, huts are built for them by the 

 hosts, and one is set apart for the young unmarried men," (p. 135). 



Again young men are taunted by the young women of their own 

 tribe, if they marry outside by peaceful arrangement, (i. e., they object 

 to loss of their lovers), (vol. II, p. 82). 



The above are a few references out of many (in one work) to the 

 fact that, excepting the married woman alone, there was complete 

 sexual liberty within the horde or clan, between those calling them- 

 selves brothers and sisters. This be it observed among races where 

 their strict exogamy is, or has been, attributed to the dread and 

 " horror " of risk of incestuous intercourse. There can be little doubt 

 that as Mr. Horatio Hale aud others believe, the Australians are a 

 degenerate race, or that they have carried with them into adverse 

 surroundings, these two remarkable social features of complete sexual 

 liberty within the clan, and the segregation of the unmarried youths, 

 after exogamy arose. They exhibit one of the rare cases where among 

 savages the increased importance of marriage and the " wife " — as a 

 food gatherer, — has dominated the relics of the barrack system. It is 

 the opposite of what we have seen among the Massai, where the com- 



